Swim Lessons

As I mentioned in a previous post, for the last 2 weeks the boys have been taking swim lessons. They finished up on Friday so I snapped a few pics of their time at the pool and I thought I would share a few.....

Here is Hailey testing out the water, or should I say her new "swing"....probably too dangerous for a 2 yr. old's slippery little hands don't ya think??


This is what I got when I told her to put her head under water....


Not exactly what I was meaning.....


Finally living life on the wild side and starting to enjoy the water....


However this is how she spent most of her time at the pool....

And now on to the actual lessons.......

Here is Jarred fighting a kick board through the water.


Jarred floating on his back. This was one of his favorite drills.


This is Jarred's least favorite drill....Jumping in to the deep end. I can't tell you how many times that poor instructor counted to 3 without even so much of a twitch from Jarred. Check out his cold little class mates in the background. That didn't even phase his fear...Sigh


So after MUCH persuasion he would jump in and spend the rest of free time right here....

Now for Jake....


Having some one-on-one time with the instructor..


Jake applying what he learned.


HEAD DOWN JAKE!! He finally started to get the hang of diving. Thank Goodness..I don't think this mommy could have handled too many more belly-flops. It stared to even make my tummy hurt!!


The end is here!!

In case you couldn't tell apparently we are serious about our swimming here, I mean GOGGLES are a must...lol.

I think they had fun and even though at times I questioned how much they were REALLY learning, they both came away with something new. I mean what more could I ask for..At least I didn't have to pay to watch some 16 yr girl flirt with a 17 yr. boy like I have in the previous years..LOL But in our little town beggars can't be choosers!!

My New Purse

Isn't it fun to go shopping and find a little something that you are drawn to, but don't really need, but you buy it anyway?? And to add to the excitement it is like 60% off?? Okay well in all honesty here that is probably why I ACTUALLY did buy it...I am totally a sales girl, not much in these closets in my little home that weren't previously on a sales rack somewhere.

Well, while Trina and I were on a little shopping date last week we saw this cutie pie purse and well it being such a steal I just had to have it...Okay well I didn't HAVE to have it , but I wanted it really, really bad. So I splurged and paid the $16.90 and bought this little baby. It still makes me happy just looking at it...Crazy huh??



It is not too flashy and I love, love the colors..I am a very browns, green, and neutral girl. I really don't know why it makes me so giddy, but it does. So, for now, I'll just be thankful for this little treasure. LOL

Catching up..

Well I have finally found a few minutes to settle at my computer to catch back up with the blogging world. Sine our weekend with Trina we have been insanely busy and now today is really one of the first few times I am able to sit for a spell and write a little post...


Our weekend with Den and Trina was fun, fun, fun!! They always know how to show us a good time. We did a little shopping and watched a movie..(Note to all reading DON'T go see You Kill Me.. Can you say STUPID!!! We all left shaking our heads on that one..hehe) She took me to her Gym and we worked out in the pool only to get into trouble by a 17 yr. lifeguard for being too careless with our kick boards..hehe Trina and I often chat about the fact that we NEVER get respect when we are together ..We think it is because we giggle and laugh and are in our own little world so people must think we are the classic airheads..Ohh if only they knew..LOL


We of course made a Starbucks run everyday and we even got to extend our weekend 1 day and didn't leave until Monday..Yippee!! The trip was way too short in my opinion, but we will be seeing them again soon I hope!!


Then when I got back I had to shift gears and get going with a Yard Sale that my sister-in-law and I have been planning for a few weeks. It was Thursday and Friday of last week and so I needed to get stuff marked and hauled out of the garage. We each did pretty good, I made about $170 and she made a little over $200, so not bad I guess. Not to mention the boys are in swim lessons and so that is done every morning for 2 weeks at 10:30.

Then on Sat. we had the barbecue at Sis. Phylis. It was a great turn out and we had alot of brethren come down for the weekend. We didn't get any company at our house, Bummer, even though we begged and pleaded, but we still made the rounds. We had a good meeting on Sunday and of course a potluck which was a a great success. We then just spent the rest of the day visiting and really enjoying the brethren.

Then Monday rolled around and I was running errands and stuff, plus the boys stared football camp from Mon-Wed and so that has taken up our evenings. Not to mention yesterday I went out to clean the church because these last two weeks have been our family's turn and I have totally forgotten, so that was up on my list for things to get done before tonight's meeting. Anyway always something going, but I know I am not the one and only to be experiencing a busy life. Hope everyone is doing well and I will finally be making the rounds again to check and see what everyone has been up too!!

A Little Fun In The Sun

It has been CRAZY HOT here!! I'm talking like in the upper 90's to 100's all week!! One neighbor kid told Jake that it was supposed to be 108 today and at first I was like ..No Way..but now after we have had this week of scorchening heat I'm a thinking..Maybe!!
So with this being said my kiddos are loving the water, however having the fair complected red-head toddler that I do I can't just march myself down to the pool or lake as much as I or they would beg me too. So I encourage them to run through the sprinkler..Oh yeah that really gets them excited..hehe
But, by 2 or 3 in the afternoon, the heat is rising and the sprinkler and the little Wal-Mart pool are the best idea I ever had..LOL
Here are a few pics I took yesterday..It was about 4:30 and I think the temp was like 96 degrees!!


Here are Jarred and Hailey posing Cheesy for the camera.....


Jake and Jarred watching the neighbor kids take a turn on the slip-n-slide...


Hailey just hanging out watching the fun...Trying to decide if the cold water is worth it or not...


Conner (our neighbor) sharing his nice little germs with my family..


Jarred just had a turn on the slip-n-slide and is trying to wring out....


Finally she gets in to the action and goes down the mini-slide....


I think she liked it..What do you think??


Jake noticed I was trying to take some action shots so he thought he would strike a pose....


My little Dare Devil..Trying to make the most of the 2 ft slide..LOL

Not a day at the beach , but they were happy and I was able to get a few pictures of the fun.
I say it was a win-win situation!!

BTW.. I will be gone for the weekend visiting my favorite Trina in the WHOLE WIDE WORLD, so hope you all have a great weekend and I'll be back Monday to share our adventures..No pressure there Miss Trina..hehe

Scared of the Dark

EARLY this morning at about 5:50 to be exact, I hear this faint little squeak on my bedroom floor and being the light sleeper that I am (most mommies are, aren't they?) it brings me out of my little dream world and I am now awake, but my eyes are still shut..I then feel a slight lean on me bed and I open one eye to see my 5 yr. old bent down in my face and saying..
"Mom?"
"Yes," I say.
"I need to go to the bathroom."
I then say, "Well go then."
He does and then he leaves our room. Only to return 5 mins. later to ask if he can turn the main bathroom light on. You see, if he does this than the stream of light will fall in his bedroom and the darkness won't feel so scary. I know this because this is something that Jarred has been battling lately..He is in that phase where he is scared of the dark.
About 15 min. later I hear a little something that sounds like he is in the bathroom again. I give him a few more mins., but I don't see him pass in the hallway and so I begrudgingly get up to check on him..You know it is always that silly thought in your mind that something could happen to them, and you could have maybe prevented it, but you were too lazy to check on them..hehe
I got up and looked into the bathroom..No Jarred
I checked his bed..No Jarred....UHHHMMMM...
I checked the floor of our bedroom, a favorite spot that he likes to lay down at when we have said he needs to go get back in his bed.....Still No Jarred
Okay so my heart is starting to pick up a little and I'm thinking that surely he didn't go wonder through the house because even though it really wasn't dark, it still would spook him out...Nope, he is not in any of the other rooms...
I check back in their room and look all round...No Jarred....I mean their room is dark, but not that dark, thanks to the 5 night lights we have going in there
(No that isn't a typo. I said 5..see what I mean about the scared of the dark thing.) As I start to get panicked and pull all the covers off his bed I stand back and I see a little raised head pop up in Jake's bed..They have bunk beds.
It's JARRED!!
I say, "There you are..Mommy was getting nervous." I of course down play my stress level because I don't want to add to his fears by acting like something could actually happen to him in the safety of his home. He smiles and I say, "Your gonna sleep with Jake?" He nods and I give him a kiss, and relieved I go back to bed. It is now about 6:15. About 10 mins. later he comes back into our bedroom and asks to sleep with us...I knew Rusty's alarm would be going of soon and so I told him I would just go get in his bed...Sigh..
He tosses and turns and FINALLY falls asleep just as Rusty's alarm goes off at 6:55. GRRR...I have now been up and moving about for the last hr and 5 min and the chance of me going back to sleep is probably non-existent!!
Rusty leaves and I slide out of the Oh too small for 2 people bed and jump back into my bed and pretend that I will gracefully fall back to sleep. Pretend being the key word here.
So as you can see I gave up. I made some Hot Tea and decided to use the peace and quiet of the morning to call a close friend who lives in a different time zone and catch up on whats been going on in her little world...Hi Amy!!
Anyhoo...My day is now started, no matter how early it came, and so I guess I will get off of here and be productive because after all the laundry won't do itself...will it?? Hope everyone has a great day!! And I hope my little boy will quickly get past this stage and we can move on to the next..on second thought what will the next one be???

One Down..Too Many To GO

I mentioned before about being in the mood for changing my house so I decided that yesterday was the day...I mean I needed to start somewhere right??


Last fall when our long lost friends lived here (Trina and Dennis) they helped us re tile our hallway and dining room. It looked AMAZING when we got done. We had about 2 boxes left when we got done so, Rusty and I decided that we would go ahead and put it down in our master bathroom. Well, cut to about 7 months later and we were no closer to accomplishing that task than we were when we decide to do it that day, so I took action...hehe


Now don't go getting impressed or anything , because after all it is only that vinyl tile that has the sticky tac on the back. However, for the novice carpenter that I am, it was almost too much for this gal to handle. Rusty works crazy hours in the summer and so I decided that I might as well give it a shot myself. I took some pictures of the before and after.....




Here is the before pic of our bathroom. I know the carpet is awful, and why it took us 21/2 yrs to remove it is beyond me!!

This is what was under the pink carpet..the beautiful 70s yellow linoleum...Ahh, gorgeous, wouldn't ya say??


And this is the finished product.....

Now please don't look too closely all you carpenters and tile people out there. There are many and I mean many spots that would make a true professional cringe. Really who am I kidding, even to the untrained eye there are spots that one would say, "Ohh My" LOL
But mission accomplished and even though there were times when I was about to pull my hair out and I definitely lost my patience a time or two with all the interruptions from the kids, I'm satisfied or should I say done...hehe However, I do have a whole new appreciation for this line of work because this tiny bathroom took me about 7 hrs and like I said all I really had to do was pull off the paper on the back and stick it down.
But who knew I could use a razor blade for 7 hours and come away without even a cut..I know Rusty would have bet against me on that one. Another little thing I learned, and I will just throw it out there as say a helpful hint...The paper that is stuck to the back of each tile is apparently "special paper" and cannot be replaced by normal paper if you are needing to re-cut or you know, maybe peeled the paper off too early and are needing to stick it somewhere..just a little lesson I learned along my tiling journey.:-) Well there you have it in all its glory..I guess I can add it to the list of things that I have now done in my lifetime.
Now on to the next task!!

Just Hanging Out

The kids and I were out doing some errands the other day and when we returned home I noticed this little guy perched on the corner of our porch....

As you might guess my the kids were very intrigued as to why this little fellow was resting so calmly and just checking us out as we checked him out.....



I mean he was soo crazy close to the door that we had to be careful not to smash him as we went in and out of the house. I figured once all the hustle and bustle of us carrying in the groceries got going it would spook him, but nope, he was just content to hang out for a while. Then I got to worrying that maybe he was hurt and I would have to play "Vet" to him and if you know me.. I don't like critters (check out previous post for more info on this subject)..Sigh.. so when I saw that he had hoped off the cement to venture back into the big bad world I was quite relieved. I just thought that it was kinda cool that he let us get so close to him and I was able to snap a few shots. You see I need proof to show Rusty that I got that close to an animal and still lived to tell about it. Yes, even a harmless little birdie. LOL

Jake's 2007 Baseball Season

Well it was our last weekend of baseball and can I say I was soooooo ready for the season to be over!! It has been fun and stuff, but I'm ready to just not have anything planned for the weekend and Ohh I don't know maybe get some work done on my HOUSE!!! Call me crazy, but my hope is still to have it accomplished by end of summer, however I feel that it now becoming a dream, like a pipe-dream..LOL


Anyway, off my soapbox for a moment to share some pics of Jake and his baseball season. His original season started in April, but he made the All-Stars and so the season was extended a bit. This was his first season in minors. He just turned 8 in April so really he could have still played a year in T-Ball, but we decided to move him up. He had a blast, but I worry that the little pressure cooker that he puts himself in each game, might cause an ulcer by the ripe ol'age of 81/2.. Actually, his nerves were under control throughout the regular season, but when All-Stars came around it was a different story. However to his defense he was the youngest on his team and we were playing against teams from Seattle and Spokane..in other words he was in WAY over his head at times. Really our whole team was, but what do you do...We actually saw a pitcher who used to play for the Mariners and Dan Wilson (Also Mariners former player) as apposing coaches and they weren't even coaching the same team...get my drift here?? However he did good considering all the circumstances and as Rusty says,


"In theory this should better him for next year."


Yeah if he lives through this year..hehe.


Anyway, here are the pics.....

This was during the regular season..Waiting patiently for a good pitch to hit....



Down in his ready stance....Notice the bulge of sunflower seeds in his back pocket....Rusty was constantly telling him to get his hands out of his back pocket. At first I thought he was having wedgie problems..LOL



The wind up.....





The stretch....



And the delivery....

I just love those 3 pics!! Rusty pitched back in his day and so as you would figure both the boys are just chomping at the bit to get a chance to follow in Dad's footsteps......



Here he is in an All-Star game, playing 2nd base...He is in mid-creeping up position...The "new" ready stance for the infield in to start back and slowly walk up with your legs bent, glove out, down and ready for the ball...Sigh, and this is what we got...LOL...But he is only 8..We had to remind ourselves of this often.....



Here he is at bat in our last tournament..He did much better this weekend..At least the pale face and look of terror was out of his eyes when he would go up to bat...Or he just figured out how to tame the beast....



Again the last tournament and he just stole 2nd base...

Well the season is now over and we our sooo proud of him!! He did great and his love for the Sport is what is one of the best parts. Even when we get killed by the other teams and get back to the house he still is asking Rusty or me to go play catch with him...Now if Rusty and I can just keep from ruining that for him, all will be Okay in his world...hehe

Great Job and We love You Jake!!